Editorial rights purchased from iStock. Image by racide.
On Monday, the FBI raided (translation: executed a lawful search warrant) Trump’s residence at Mar-A-Lago. This was not the FBI’s first visit to the sprawling beachfront property Trump has called home since leaving the White House.
In January of 2022, the National Archives & Records Admin (NARA) retrieved 15 boxes of documents from Trump after learning that he had violated the Presidential Records Act (translation: broke the law), which requires every president to transfer a complete set of presidential records to NARA when each administration ends. Trump not only failed to provide the required records to NARA; he removed them from the White House.
In a statement made earlier this year, a representative of NARA, U.S. Archivist David Ferriero, said, “NARA pursues the return of records whenever we learn that records have been improperly removed or have not been appropriately transferred to official accounts.” (Translation: This is standard operating procedure.)
Trump’s aides claim there was nothing nefarious in his actions and have characterized the material as personal mementos, such as the “love letter” from the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, and the letter written to Trump by Barack Obama just prior to Trump’s presidency. Aides say the desire to avoid the reality of Trump’s defeat made them reluctant to pack up his office. As a result, they postponed the inevitable until the last minute, and the resulting mad dash in those final days led to the accidental transfer of documents, some of which were marked Top Secret.
But the explanation given by Trump’s aides does not explain why, after subsequent visits in April, May, and June of 2022, the FBI found a basement storage area that contained documents previously requested by NARA. (Translation: Multiple efforts to obtain the records without a search warrant failed.)
Trump’s habit of destroying documents backfires
Trump is well-known for his habit of attempting to destroy presidential records.
When the National Archives and Records Administration handed over a trove of documents to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, some of the Trump White House records had been ripped up and then taped back together, according to three people familiar with the documents.
According to the Washington Post, Trump’s document destruction practice “ … continued well into the latter stages of his presidency.”
How will Trump be held accountable?
The irony here is that Trump’s attempt to destroy documents may be the key to his demise. While seditious conspiracy, election interference, fraud, witness tampering, and inciting an insurrection may be difficult to prove — especially if intent must be established, not just suspected — Trump’s illegal actions to hide information that belongs to the government, not the former president, are straightforward.
Trump was asked to return documents to NARA, and he didn’t. Even if Trump’s original actions of absconding with said documents was a “mistake,” he can hardly claim his refusal to turn them over as requested in subsequent months is anything but intentional.
Like Al Capone, who was guilty of multiple murders but was charged with tax evasion, Trump may go down in history as the president who committed too many crimes to count but was finally brought to justice over his childlike attempts to hide evidence.
The key to what happens next will likely be determined by the contents of the boxes the FBI retrieved from Trump’s basement storage area on Monday. While any attempt to destroy or abscond with presidential records is illegal, the nature of the documents in question may determine the sentence Trump receives. (Translation: He’s going down, the only question is whether he is fined and jailed and whether any jail sentence he receives is served.)
The Republican response to the FBI “raid”
Naturally, Republicans on Fox TV are having a fit. They say the FBI’s execution of a search warrant was unwarranted. According to Fox, all the DOJ needed to do was ask for what they wanted from Trump. Perhaps they didn’t read the numerous public reports confirming that the DOJ did ask for them and that Trump failed to produce them.
On Tuesday night, during Shannon Bream’s evening broadcast, we heard, among other inanities, that Fox propagandists also insist that nothing Trump took to Mar-A-Lago can be classified because Trump had the right to declassify documents while president. Conveniently, they fail to acknowledge that declassifying documents is a process that does not include absconding with them (without telling anyone) after leaving office.
Republican leadership is now chanting the usual party line, stating that Trump is being politically persecuted. This is all to discredit Trump, they say.
Interestingly, it wasn’t the FBI, the DOJ, or President Biden who announced the execution of the search warrant. It was Trump. If this was an attempt to discredit Trump, why was Trump the only one who chose to disclose the information?
Trump capitalizes on the “raid” to raise funds
Trump made his statement announcing the “raid” shortly after he was asked to leave Mar-A-Lago. At the time, the FBI was occupying his residence in an effort to locate all the presidential records Trump illegally hid from NARA.
Trump wasted no time in publicly announcing that he was being persecuted — clearly eager to reap the benefits of publicity that would further stoke the battle between his supporters and everybody else.
As expected, his announcement contained the usual whining about a political “witch hunt,” but it included something else: requests for donations.
Trump has been in good spirits since he left Mar-A-Lago for his New York apartment and is considering an announcement of his expected run for president in 2024. He thinks this will be a good thing for him. (He couldn’t be more wrong, but we’ll get to that later.)
Despite the 41k people who liked the tweet, there was no sign of war the following day— they were all still sleeping — except about twelve people who showed up near Mar-A-Lago to wave banners and show their support for the former president.
Granted, the faux militias from the insurrection might be gearing up for a fight. However, I suspect the imprisonment of several key people for the actions taken on January 6 might put a damper on that impulse.
I’ve always thought the ones who yell the loudest are the least likely to take action. While the violent rhetoric will doubtless continue, these people are cowards. If they can’t stack the deck in their favor before a fight, they are unlikely to go to battle. They only fight when there are ten times more of them than their opponents — like at the Capitol on January 6.
Why did Trump keep the documents, and who else might be implicated?
While we don’t yet know what the documents retrieved by the FBI contain, my guess is Trump was saving material to use later — perhaps to gain leverage or a payout from Putin, the Saudis, or some other foreign leader with whom he might wish to ingratiate himself. He may even have planned an escape route based on his ability to trade secrets for a new residency and some cash in a country where he isn’t a wanted man.
We know that some of them are so highly classified we can’t even discuss them publicly.
Whatever the case, the FBI is about to find out exactly what Trump has been up to, and it’s making two leading Republicans very nervous. Jim Jordan and Kevin McCarthy started making loud noises immediately after the search warrant was executed. Fox TV is also feigning outrage at the DOJ’s “unprecedented” move. But they all seem to forget that unprecedented crimes committed by a former president require unprecedented action to ensure accountability.
Republican leaders and pundits are also proclaiming that “No American is safe.” They are right about that. No American who commits crimes is safe from prosecution. So the key here, for any who hasn’t already figured it out, is don’t commit crimes.
Jordan and McCarthy will probably be implicated in additional crimes once the documents have been thoroughly reviewed. Hence their immediate and vigorous protestations. And they won’t be the only ones. Between the attempts to overturn the 2020 election and the coup attempt on January 6, there is enough guilt to go around. If we want to know who is most culpable, we need to look at who is protesting most loudly now.
The Trump loyalty club
It’s hard for me to comprehend the loyalty Trump still engenders. This is a man who recently buried his first wife at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a tax right-off. The golf course has become the family burial plot. At one point, Trump was planning to invite others to join Ivana so they might enjoy the benefits of “eternal membership” to his over-priced golf club. Let’s face it; the man has no shame.
Still, the Republicans have made him their golden calf, and until he’s indicted or leaves the country, it’s hard to say when they will divert their attention to someone else. Given that someone else could well be Ron DeSantis, I’m not sure Democrats should worry about Trump.
I expect Trump will be disqualified from running long before the 2024 election — so the more Republicans focus on him, the less prepared they will be for the next presidential election. At least, that’s my theory.